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Thursday, August 23, 2007

Breakfast #12: Chorizo Fried Rice with Egg

This is one of the most blissful things (in my humble opinion) about growing up in the Philippines…decadent yet fortifying, indulgent yet necessary, over-the-top yet simple and basic (hold on to your garters my friends!) – rice for breakfast.

And not just any rice – fried rice! It goes by many names: sinangag, kalo-kalo, sangag. Whatever you call it, it is what has been driving us on for decades. Rice is the fuel for our collective, national "little-engine-that-could". It is what got us to till the fields at the crack of dawn, cast our nets in the wee hours of morn, and gamely answer vast amounts of call center complaints still wearing a smile on our faces. Rice for breakfast – we salute you!

Nowadays, this archetypal “Pinoy breakfast” would consist of rice, a protein (check these Lasang Pinoy entries to get an idea), and egg. A delicious feast! What I decided to do here is just toss everything together to get a hearty one-bowl meal. For the protein I used skinless chorizo.

1 sili labuyo (bird’s eye chili), cut in half (I always cut sili in half so the heat escapes but you can still see it while you eat and thereby avoid scandalous surprise)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Your choice of oil

- Heat oil in a wok or kawali. Add onions, garlic, and sili all at once, and sauté until onion is soft.- Add chorizo to the pan and sauté until it has released its glorious orange oil and is just cooked.- Add rice to the pan and toss until rice is orange and soft. Take the pan off the heat and set aside.- In a non-stick skillet heat a little oil. Add egg and cook until set. Flip the egg like an omelet until the whole thing has set. No need for good form here as you will slice it up. Just make it as flat as you can.- Slice egg into strips and toss with rice. You can reserve some egg strips to use as topping.- Serves 2-3

The chorizo gives this dish a bit of a Spanish influence…with one important caveat: The Spanish-style chorizo I used is made right here! I bought it from a friend that makes his own and, yes (!), he sells it too (details below). It is really delicious and I am presently kicking myself for only buying the 250-gram pack. You can use any chorizo you have though or even longanisa. If you don’t have any skinless (or, as it is locally called “hubad”, which means naked…I love that!) you can use regular and just cut it up as you see fit.

If you happen to be in Manila: You can order the chorizo from Desnudos, just call 8230047. They also have choriburger patties (oh yes…I have a pack in the freezer!) and longanisa hubad (naked longanisa!). Desnudos also means naked. I should stop with the naked huh? Or at least wait until after lunch ;)

35 comments:

What a breakfast made in heaven! Chorizo and sinangag!When I went to SF to visit my dear friend from the Philippines, we had rice for breakfast. In fact the night before we took some tapsilog home from Chow King (yes there was one there in Vallejo) and a whole Max fried chicken and had it for breakfast the next day...YUM!

I LOVE these things (especially chorizo/ longanisa/ tocino), with sunny side-up please! The problem is-- and you'll find this utterly blasphemous-- I have no appetite till lunchtime. Must be my slowing metabolism. I hope my appetite for true breakfast does come back, though, so I can try your friend's chorizo!

Yumm! Nothing beats rice for breakfast!! I always look forward to my vacation in Malaysia, where my Grandma serves up a platter of coconut rice with some very spicy fish for breakfast - comfort food personified!

You know, Joey, I think I could very easily adapt to the Philippine traditional breakfast routine. I absolutely love rice, and I'm thinking it sounds like a truly genius notion to have it for breakfast. :-)

Hi Veron! Wow! That's sounds like quite a feast you had there :) My mom loves Chow King and my husband can polish off half a Max's chicken...can you guess who polishes off the other half...hehehe :)

Hi Kumudha! Thank you :) Maybe if you find vegan/veggie chorizo? Or maybe you can use veggie mince and spike it with Spanish paprika? That sounds doable! :)

Hi Manggy! Your metabolism is like a furnace...you have to feed it to get it to burn! :) When you wake up, it is still sleepy, just dying embers. You need to throw in some burning kindling to get it started :) As for the chorizo...anytime of the day is good :)

Hi Meena! Coconut rice with very spicy fish...that sounds fantastic Meena...something I would really like :)

Hi Katiez! Leftover risotto for breakfast...now why didn't I think of that? :) My husband hardly eats breakfast (gasp), but when he does it is usually savory. But hey, I have cold cereal days too :)

Hi Oggi! Hmmm...sounds like breakfast in your place is quite the spread :) The caldero is from SM (Shoemart)...their home section is amazing and cheap and I can spend hours in there buying all sorts of odds and ends (like single serving calderos!) :)

Hi Belinda! Nice to know you like rice too :) It really makes for a complete breakfast and after all, they do say that breakfast is supposed to be our heaviest meal...we have sweet stuff too, like chocolate rice pudding! Hope to post about that soon :)

Single serving calderos? Really? how cute! You could do a nice table setting, serving something slow cooked then ladled into them and then have the guests open their mini-calderos at the same time, must go to SM now! :)

We don't eat too much rice for breakfast, except for our national dish nasi lemak (coconut milk rice with anchovies sambal, hard-boiled eggs, and cucumber slices). Mostly, we have all kinds of savory noodle soup for breakfast, and others. :)

I am a blissful union of the north and east of india. What that means is that my mom whos from the east has brought me up with all different kinds of rice be it sweet, savory, puffed rice with spices or parched rice as breakfast. The northern side (my dad) comes out in the form of hearty breakfasts of parathas (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratha)with vegetables, yoghurt and pickles. Which one do i like? i think u know the answer already and if u ever saw me ud see it too.. i love it all!!p.s. sorry for the looong post

Hi Marvin! I really want to make my own...your post was such an inspiration, no joke! :)

Hi Susan! Thanks! :) And it smells great too...gets me out of bed :)

Hehe! Nice to hear that Peabody :)

Hi M! I was just thinking that :) And it would be a great way of serving individual portions of sinigang too! SM home department totally rocks!

Hi Bee! I've haven't tried nasi lemak yet but it sounds gooood! I would love to have something like that for breakfast...noodles too! :)

Thanks Jen! "Silog" is always a good breakfast no? :) The chorizo is really good!

Hi Ipshi! What a lucky duck you are to have the best of both worlds! Nice to see that you appreciate it :) And boy, as I was reading your comment I kept thinking yum, Yum, YUM! I could likewise do both the rice side and paratha side!

Hi Toni! My husband likes this too :) Thanks!

Hi Nens! It really was super duper good! Now I have to replenish my stocks! :)

i love that little pot :) i have to ask someone to buy me two or three of those, nakakahomesick.sinangag is just the best comfort food, i try to make that at least once a week.siling labuyo, wowee! gotta try.

Hi Kelly-jane! Thank you :) Chorizo for breakfast is wonderful...another way would be to have them with eggs which I'm sure will be fantastic!

Hi Donna A! Thanks for your kind words :) Yes, I have heard of that reverse dieting, which was never a problem for me since I can have rice for breakfast and cold cereal for dinner with no problem...but as you said, the weight loss, well, that's a different story, heeheehee :)

Hi DrStel! They had a bunch of small things, including this pot, in SM...small kawalis and buckets, etc...hay! I really went nuts! ;) The chorizo I used here is made by a friend of mine, but I'm sure you can find something there too :)

Hi Stef! Thanks :) Yes, it's a lost art in this busy world...once in a while is fine...it is such a comfort and a pleasure to me :)

Hi Joey,Just had ""sinangag and longaniza" for breakfast this morning. I love how I can get Filipino breakfasts here in Las Vegas. Your chorizo fried rice looks delicious and is something we always have at home in Marbella.